"We have a central and essential objective: to save lives." A few hours after the double earthquake that shook northwestern Venezuela on Wednesday afternoon, Decly Rodríguez addressed the population in a video message surrounded by a dozen senior officials. The interim president tried to make the administration's work visible by showing an image of unity, and asked Venezuelans for the same: "United we will overcome this tragedy." At the most critical moment for Chavismo, practically co-opted by the intervention of the United States, the tragedy has added even more pressure to Delcy Rodríguez's government. But if the executive knows – and can – manage the response well, it can still have a card in its favor in a future negotiation for a political transition in the country.

Venezuela has just suffered two devastating earthquakes that have exposed, if that were even possible, the inability of a bankrupt state to face the harsh reality. The earthquake has stripped bare organizational miseries and exponentially accentuated the torn seams of a country that was not working and that is now literally – physically and psychologically – in pieces.

The scale of the tragedy in Venezuela is worsening by the hour. The images of destruction that captured the attention of the whole world on Thursday have given way this Friday to concern about the rising death toll. The day began with 235 deaths and by the end of the day the toll had risen to over 900. Mid-afternoon another piece of data set off alarm bells: the UN warned that there could be up to 50,000 missing from the double earthquake. Regarding citizens of Spanish nationality, to date, 5 deaths, 106 missing persons have been counted and 14 people have been located buried under the rubble.

"I was entering the house and I received a notification on my mobile warning of an earthquake. We immediately started to feel the shaking. Glasses began to fall from the cupboards and books from the shelves and we quickly went down to the street. When it seemed to be over, a second tremor shook everything again, even stronger. It was very distressing." This is how the double earthquake that has shaken Venezuela Marisol Tapia, a resident of Caracas. "My building seems undamaged, but the city is full of collapsed buildings," she tells ARA.

Two powerful earthquakes, separated by just 39 seconds, have shaken Venezuela and caused a tragedy of great proportions. The victim toll is still very provisional, with 235 deaths and 4,300 injuries confirmed by the country's government, but it is feared that the figure will increase considerably in the coming hours, as rescue teams can clear the enormous amount of rubble accumulated by the collapse of buildings.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck central northeastern Japan this Monday, prompting Japanese authorities to activate a tsunami alert, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

Northeastern Japan is on tsunami alert after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake was recorded in the last few hours. The country's Meteorological Agency (JMA) has warned of the possibility of waves up to three meters high in various prefectures, from Hokkaido to Fukushima, and the government has ordered the evacuation of coastal and riverine areas.

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan. Authorities issued evacuation orders affecting approximately 90,000 residents, and the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori, and Iwateha issued a tsunami warning, which was downgraded a few hours later. The country's Meteorological Agency initially warned that waves could reach three meters in height, but those observed so far ranged between 20 and 70 centimeters. The quake struck at 11:15 p.m. local time on Monday, off the coast of Aomori Prefecture in the northeast of the archipelago. The epicenter of the earthquake, which left at least seven people injured, was located at a depth of 50 kilometers. The intensity, registered as 6 out of 7 on the Japanese seismic scale, was such that it made it impossible to stand or move without crawling.

“I endured pain for many nights until the female doctors arrived. Only now I am beginning to feel some relief”, says Qamro Jan, an Afghan woman who has been in agony for days after being seriously injured by the powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan on Monday, with its epicenter in Kunar province. Kunar is one of the most conservative provinces in the country, and male doctors rarely treat women. In other words, only a female doctor can assist them. Under the Taliban, this situation has worsened, and the earthquake has been devastating: hundreds of injured women have had to wait hours and days without medical assistance until doctors from international organizations arrived in the area. And yet, they are not enough.

The earthquake that recently struck Afghanistan has left a trail of destruction and death. Thousands of people have lost their lives, thousands more have been injured, and behind every number are broken stories, destroyed families, and futures snatched away. But amidst this immense pain, there is one wound that bleeds even more than all the others: that of Afghan women.

There are few images of what happened, but some are disturbing: desperate men trying to dig out victims trapped under the rubble with their bare hands in the middle of the night, using their cell phone flashlights to illuminate the scene. A magnitude 6 earthquake struck northeastern Afghanistan on Sunday night, devastating the outcome: at least 1,124 people died and 3,251 were injured, according to a Tuesday update from the Afghan Red Crescent, a humanitarian group working in the region.

"When the tsunami warning sounded, we reacted immediately and seriously. After Fukushima, everyone knows what that sound means. The entire neighborhood emptied in minutes: tourists rushed to their hotels, and we, the locals, rushed to the community center," Hiroshi Sato, a resident of Hakodate, one of the cities, told ARA. "From the evacuation center, we followed the news on television and mobile phones until we were told the alert was being lowered and we were able to return home," Sato said. More than fifty shelters had been set up in Hakodate, and more than 4,000 people had been evacuated as of midday, although the earthquake went virtually unnoticed by local residents.

An 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula triggered a tsunami on Wednesday, putting several Pacific Ocean countries on alert for several hours, including Japan, the US territories of Hawaii and Alaska, China, and Canada. At least two million people received evacuation orders in Japan early Tuesday morning, and evacuations were also ordered in areas of Hawaii, where waves of 1.2 meters were already recorded, and along the US west coast. The tsunami reached the coast of California, where the tide rose one meter above normal. But by early afternoon, the alert had been lifted in virtually all territories that feared damage.

A 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck southern Spain on Monday morning. According to the National Geographic Institute (IGN), it occurred at 7:13 a.m. off the coast of Almería between Cape Palos and Cape Gata, approximately 32 kilometers offshore, taking the municipality of Níjar as a reference point.

A magnitude 3.5 earthquake on the Richter scale struck the Costa Brava at noon this Thursday. The epicenter of the quake was several kilometers offshore, just off the Girona coast and toward the island of Menorca. According to the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC), the quake was slightly felt in the Empordà region, with no damage reported.

A new 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Greek islands of Crete and Santorini early Thursday morning. Although the epicenter was located about 82 kilometers from the city of Iraklio, the capital of Crete, the quake was felt in Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus, and Israel. Initially, the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center issued a tsunami warning, but Greek authorities eventually dismissed it because the earthquake struck quite far from the coast and at a great depth, approximately 64 kilometers.

Nearly four days after the devastating earthquake that struck Myanmar, efforts to rescue survivors from under the rubble continue, although the window of opportunity is shrinking. Friday's 7.7 magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter just 10 kilometers deep, continues to produce aftershocks—around 170 as of Sunday, according to the Thai Meteorological Service—and the difficult access to the worst-hit areas and power, internet, and telephone outages are complicating rescue efforts and impeding rescue efforts.